it’s so late, sweetheart, to hurry
probably I’ll never be
as old as today
suddenly an old mirror
has shown up before me
in which I dimly saw myself
decomposed, amputated, humiliated
now I’m standing still
under the snow-laden firtrees in Copou
but inside me everything
is swirling rapidly
greatly embarrassed
I attend
an awful
motley
it’s too late, sweetheart, to hurry
I keep on receiving
alarming news
and I put all my hope
in this winter
Continuerà a crescere tranne che in quel punto (It Will Continue to Grow Except at this Point) -- Giuseppe Penone
Parcul Copou (Copou Park) or Copou Gardens (Grădina Copou) is the oldest public park in Iaşi, Romania, dating to 1834 at the beginning of the reign of the modernizing voivode Mihail Sturdza of Țara Moldovei (Moldavia), the first prince under the new Regulamentul Organic constitution imposed by Russia. According to an earlier voivode, Dimitrie Cantemir, in his 1714 "Descriptio Moldaviae," in the 14th century Dragoș Vodă, the first voivode, had pursued a star-marked auroch (a type of large wild cattle that became extinct in the 17th century) across the Carpathian mountains to an unknown river; his descălecat ("dismounting") there was symbolically regarded as the foundation of the principality. Dragoș was accompanied by Molda, his female hound, who was killed by the auroch and gave her name to the Moldava river and the area around it. The 44-ft (13.5 m) Obeliscul cu lei (Lions' Obelisk), dedicated to the Regulamentul Organic was constructed between 1834 and 1841 in the center of the park, next to the Teiul lui Eminescu, a 500-year-old silver lime tree under which the 19th-century poet Mihai Eminescu wrote some of best works . The park became a favorite destination for the local gentry and aristocracy. Eminescu's contempory, the folklorist/historian Alecu Russo called the park "the theatre where young men make their worldly debut, all melancholy and laid back in their carriages, the usual cigarette hanging from the corner of their mouths... Copou is also a scene that our ladies like to use, big and small, young and old, ugly or beautiful, to compete for brightness in their eye-catching outfits." A socio-anthropological study in 2013 concluded that its lime trees facilitate positive feelings towards the past and "incredulity, bitterness, alienation ... or aggressiveness" toward the present among modern visitors.
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